


The Fight: Shredder

by bmlhillenkeene



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Mikey is also a wooby, Mikey is awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-04-05 05:13:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4167249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmlhillenkeene/pseuds/bmlhillenkeene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shredder has attacked the turtles on patrol. One brother is all that stands between them all and death. Leo wished with all his heart that it was him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leonardo

They weren't ready, they never were. The Shredder had hit them hard, the attack coming out of nowhere and faster than any of them had even thought they were down. Leo was leaning heavily on his katana, the point driven into the rooftop, his face twisted in pain as he looked up at the metal shrouding the face of their fathers enemy. Pushing himself up was impossible, but he had to try, he had to get up, because there was no one else to stand between this monster and his brothers.

"Shredder."

Leonardo's eyes widened as sudden terror gripped his heart and squeezed and as Shredders head turned from him Leo's head tilted forward until his eyes shut, feeling a sharper pain well up within him.

"You?" he could hear the disbelief in the Shredders voice, the mocking huff of laughter at the mere idea.

Leo tightened his grip on his katana for a moment before he eased away from it. He wanted to stand, he wanted to get to his feet, to force the humans focus back to him, to keep that evil and death facing him. But he couldn't, there was nothing he could do, and that terrified him.

'~Don't look.~' came the small plea, it fissoned through his mind, planted there by the desperate remains of his youngest brother, the one currently locked up tight behind the too serious, too grown up expresion. This was not Mikey, but Michelangelo, the Turtle his brother would become when he left behind childish things. Leo opened his eyes and looked.

Michelangelo stood, skin already blackening with bruises, a nunchuku hung from one hand, still, and in his other one of Raph's Sai. Leo remembered that his brothers other nunchuku had been lost over the edge of the building. He was still, frightenly so. Leonardo had asked Splinter why his baby brother hid his talents, why he made himself look clumsy and weak compared to the rest of them. Michelangelo wasn't stupid, and he wasn't unskilled, but he hid it all from them. Splinter had confided some of his brothers fears in him, and he had been humbled, and even more fircely protective of his brother.

But seeing him now Leo wanted nothing more than to find some way to stop this, to stop his brother from having to do this. Mikey was afraid of becoming a monster, afraid of killing, afraid to really let himself go, because if he did, if he forgot who he was, or if his brothers saw him like this, then he wouldn't be Mikey anymore to them, he'd be something else, something that was, and wasn't their brother anymore.

Michelangeo's mouth twisted into a mocking smile, just a small shift. "Just me." he answered the Shredders disbelief. "I'll give you the chance to retreat now."

Leonardo had never seen anyone weild two completely different weapons before, but Michelangelo managed it with grace, each block, dodge and attack used both weapons to full advantage. He glided between fighting stances with ease, and his energy seemed boundless. Shredder was becoming more and more enraged as most of his blows and attacks missed their mark. And then suddenly, in a move Leonardo could barely follow, Shredder was on the ground, Raph's Sai pressed to his throat, the chain of the nunchuku wrapped around Shredders arm that was mere inches from slicing Mikey up. Michelangelo's foot was crushing the other arm and his other knee was lodged into the mans metal covered gut.

There was silence, and Leonardo held his breath as Michelangelo's face was carefully, calculatingly blank. Leo wanted to reach out, to take over. He wanted to be where his brother was, wanted to take his place, because Mikey shouldn't have to make this decision, shouldn't be the one to do this. It would kill a part of him.

"Leo." Michelangelo said suddenly, not moving an inch. "Don't Look." he said, voice as blank as his face.

Leonardo let is head fall forward again, and gripped his sword tighter when he heard the gurgle. He wanted so much to cry, cry for his little brother. He didn't startle when he felt Michelangelo's hand come to rest on his shoulder. He looked up then, meeting the blue eyes, shadowed and ashamed. He didn't offer apologies or words of comfort, he just released his grip on his katana, slumping back and accepting his brother into his arms. His eyes went to the still body of the Shredder, and the pool of bright red that shone black in the moonlight.

The man was dead now, the threat to their family was gone at last, but he'd managed to take something else from them in doing so.


	2. Michelangelo

They were always caught off guard.

No matter how hard they trained, or how vigilent they were, the Shredder always caught them off guard.

Mikey had watched as his brothers fell. Donnie went first, crumpling to the ground, blood fanning out around him. He couldn't tell is his brother was still alive, but he was painfully, terribly still and Mikey didn't think he was; and he couldn't reach him to check. Raph soon followed, he'd rushed to Donnie, and then he'd flown at Shredder in a rage, he'd been sent spiralling back, had landed somewhere off to the side. Another brother Mikey couldn't reach, surrounded as he was by the Foot. Leo was next, he was facing off against the Shredder, in close quaters, and then a blow felled him too.

Mikey finished off the last foot soldier, saw his oldest brother struggling, trying to get back to his feet. He didn't know if Donnie or Raph was still alive, but Leo was, and Mikey was the only one left to save him.

Only Mikey wasn't going to be enough, not this time.

His hand tightened around his weapons, shifting his grip when he realised he held one of Raphael's Sai's, he'd trained in all his brothers weapons, as part of his 'secret' training with his sensei. 'Secret' because he was well aware that his brothers knew about it, he'd seen them peeping in the door of the dojo sometimes, and he knew they all wondered. Wondered why he hid his talent.

The only one who knew was Sensei. He'd gone to him one night, shaken up from a nightmare and had confessed his fears, why he dumbed himself down during lessons, why he let his brothers win. He couldn't trust himself not to hurt them, and sometimes, if he focused too much, got too into what he was doing, then he knew he would. He wouldn't mean to, but he'd accidentially given Raph a concussion when the other had snuck up on him while he was practicing by himself one day, and it had shaken him to his core. That's when the private training had started, because Spinter had promised him that he could not hurt him like he could his brothers, and that he needed to let loose the fear and tension coiled within him, and with Sensei alone it was safe.

"Shredder!" he called out, locking up the part of him that was Mikey, the little brother, the goofball. This battle was not the place for him. He locked away all childish things, his hopes, his dreams, and himself. He let the uncomfortable weight of responsability rest squarely on his shoulders, and kept his eyes fixed on the Shredder.

"You?" came the mocking voice.

Michelangelo's lips twitched into a smile, allowing the child in him to cry out to his brother. If Leo didn't look, didn't see, then maybe Mikey could come back again. Maybe.

They talked sometimes, he and sensei, about the future, and about the Shredder, and his brothers. Mikey had confessed that he knew if any of them was going to kill the Shredder it would be him, that it should be him. But he was afraid of what that would mean. If he killed then a part of him would die as well, and then his brothers would look at him differently. He could no longer be himself.

Or maybe he finally would be himself.

Michelangeo's mouth twisted into a mocking smile, just a small shift. "Just me." he answered the Shredders disbelief. "I'll give you the chance to retreat now."

He gave the man no chance to do so. He never intended to. He flew across the roof at speed. It wasn't like when he let go with sensei, then there was the knowledge that it was his father he was facing, the killing instinct wasn't there. But his brothers were unable to defend themselves, dead, dying or injured, and Shredder was not leaving this battle alive. Enough was enough.

Using two different weapons put him at an advantage, and he was glad he'd listened to sensei's advice on the subject. In order to be an effective fighter a knowledge of how to use whatever weapon you had to hand was essential. Of course, Michelangelo had taken it slightly further than sensei had intended, in one of his more creative moods he had tried out his brothers weapons in varying combinations. Sensei had been surprised, but had not stopped him.

Then the Shredder was on the ground, Sai at his throat, his eyes surprised and even a little fearful.

Michelangelo held that gaze, but when he spoke his words were directed to his brother. "Leo," he said, voice as blank as his expression, his brother didn't need to see this. Didn't need to see Mikey kill. "Don't Look."

He waited, because he knew Leo would obey this one request, and when he no longer felt his brothers eyes on him he pressed the Sai forward, and felt something crack as the death rattle rose in the Shredders throat. He waited until the left bled from him before he got up, leaving his weapons as they were. He looked across the roof, to the still body of Donatello, and the crumpled form of Raphael, he didn't know if they were dead, dying or injured, and he hoped beyond all hope that they were alive.

He checked them, his eyes closing in relief when he found them alive. He fixed them up as well as he could, pulled them beside each other and called home, his voice low and virtually unheard as he spoke. Sensei knew what he had done, the tone of his voice was enough to show that, and he would come. Then Michelangelo turned towards Leo, still cluching at his sword, head bowed, eyes tightly shut. He went to him then, laying a hand on his shoulder, waiting until he was looking again and trying to show all of his sorrow that Leo had seen it. That he could no longer be Mikey to him.

But Leo's eyes were clear, and his arms opened, wide and accepting and Michelangelo felt his breath hitch, and his eyes widen and as the full reality of what he had done hit him he collapsed into his brothers embrace, and cried silently for what he could never be again.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea, seriously. Poor Mikey. Sort of a tie in with The Fight, but not really nessecary to read it.


End file.
